Tisbury Closes Lagoon Pond to Protect Bay Scallops

The Vineyard Haven side of Lagoon Pond will be closed to all bay scalloping beginning Monday, Nov. 5., to protect a large crop of juvenile scallops, the town shellfish constable said Wednesday morning.

The bay scallop season opened in Tisbury on Oct. 27. Poor weather conditions kept scallopers off the pond until Sunday.

Closure will protect an abundant number of scallop seed.
— Mark Alan Lovewell

But Tisbury shellfish constable Danielle Ewart said that on Sunday dip netters and draggers all reported large numbers of seed and few mature scallops. The total harvest for the day for all scallopers was only eight bushels. “Few people came close to harvesting a recreational limit of one level bushel,” she said in a press release.

“The decision to stop the scallop harvest nine days after the season opened . . . is necessary to protect an abundant number of so called seed, or immature scallops,” the release also said.

The pond was seeded with young scallops prior to the start of the season, and those scallops have not spawned, the constable said. “Although the department closed off a large area around Hines Point to protect seed it is clear that more needs to be done. The shellfish department has concluded that it is in the best interests of the entire scallop resource to do what it can now to protect all of the sexually immature scallops upon which next season’s harvest will depend,” the press release said.

Early reports from other Island towns indicate that the bay scallop season could be poor this year.